I sometimes enter the Writers of the Future contest (although not recently), so I get their spam. Today they emailed to tell me all about their new website that has, like, writing tips or whatever on it, and in the body of the email they talked about L. Ron Hubbard. And this is what they had to say about him:
"L. Ron Hubbard made a name for himself during the Golden Age of Science Fiction becoming one of the most publishable names in pulp fiction, with a ninety percent placement rate of first-draft manuscripts."
Wait, what? Am I reading this right? He was sending out first-draft manuscripts? No wonder his reputation sucks so bad--that and Scientology.
Remember last year, when Anonymous turned their attention to Scientology? And then apparently lost interest and went back to making lolcats? Feeling wistful here for bygone glories.
12 comments:
I wish I could sell pieces on name alone. That would rock. Maybe I need to change my name to Brian Keene or Jane Smiley.
Or Stephen King. :)
Ooh, or Stephanie King - now there's a name to get a horror writer sued. :)
The Writers of the Future folk will send the antho to schools for free, and our librarian brought me a box last year. The fiction was good, but I was a little disturbed when it was interspersed with essays by Hubbard. Something fishy in that...
Ha! What about Stephanie Queen? Or Stephanie Keen?
Yeah, they really push Hubbard's crap. He was a terrible writer of dubious morals. The contest is worthwhile, but for a newbie writer not sure where to go for advice, Hubbard's "advice" is totally wrong.
I got that email, too. I kinda, sorta considered Galaxy as a market for a couple of my stories (Clearing was one), but being in their system just kind of creeped me out. I convinced myself that if I subbed to them, within days I'd get a knock on my door by some hyper-smiley, wild-eyed folks with a large black box and a portable battery pack.
From what I've heard, they keep the Scientology crap out of the contest--but it creeps me out too. I know people who've done well in the contest (one of the co-editors of Every Day Fiction recently got first place), but I'm still leery of sending them anything else. I don't want to feed the beast.
I did enjoy the Hubbard book Fear. Very good reading. I don't think I have ever read anything else by him though.
Most of his books are really crappy pulp SF. I don't think I've ever finished reading anything of his. My eyes sort of glaze over and I am compelled to stop reading. It must be Xenu's fault.
Fear was actually a pretty decent horror novel. I might have to re-read it this spring.
Maybe he should have written horror all those years instead of SF.
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